Reno frowned at Zack. Zack paid him no attention. He was too excited by the prospect of returning home.
"I haven't seen my mom since I joined SOLDIER," he told Nadia boisterously, over the sound of the helicopter's blades.
Nadia chuckled. "She'll probably hate me."
"Not if you act the way you do around me. Maybe if you're too clinical, she won't be as fond of you as she could, but I don't know if she's capable of hate."
"You'd be surprised. People generally regard me with contempt."
"I don't think so," Reno interjected.
She looked at her boyfriend with fondness. "Thank you," she replied with a gentle, reassuring smile.
Zack turned sideways so as to look directly at Nadia. "Look, just be yourself. The self that is deep down inside. The real you that you like to keep secret. The slightly vulnerable you, if you will."
"Vulnerability?"
Reno leaned forward. "You don't have to worry about what his family thinks. It's not like you have any reason to impress them."
"You've a good point."
Zack leaned toward the window and a smile crept across his face.
"Are we here?"
He responded with a nod. He had been talking throughout the journey. Yelling at the top of your lungs in order to be heard could really take a toll on your vocal chords. Hence, when they touched down he was speaking with a scratchy, painful sounding voice.
Nadia pulled on a heavy jacket and held it close to her figure, holding it so even when the wind threatened to tear it away.
Zack rasped out an apology. "Sorry it's so cold."
"You can't control the weather, sweetie," she soothed in response.
"But he could control what time of the year we came here," Reno growled.
She furrowed her brow at Reno.
"Don't be mad at him," Zack offered meekly, "because I have one more apology to make. . . . We have to walk to my parent's house."
"That's okay," Nadia assuaged while Reno grumbled:
"You gotta be kidding me."
The group trudged through the wind and sleet. Luckily, Zack's family didn't live too far and when they arrived they were received graciously by Mrs. Fair. She was a plump woman who, had she been male, a foot taller, younger and in better shape she would have been the very image of her son. Zack resembled his mother so much that Nadia couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he had been born of an affair. However, that thought was quickly dismissed when she met his father. He was a giant of a man, standing at 6'5, although his unruly spikes added another good three and half inches. His eyes, not their color, but their shape was identical to his son's. It was undeniable that Zack Fair had been granted fantastically attractive genes courtesy of his absolutely beautiful parents.
They possessed a small home, but it had a quaint, antebellum charm to it. His mother was the quintessential mother. Baking cookies, cleaning house and taking care of her family, friends and guests in general was what she lived for. When Zack entered she had rushed forward and pulled her son into a hug. Zack blushed, a tad embarrassed, but still returned the favor. Then she located Nadia.
"Oh!" she chimed, "You must be Nadia! It's so great to finally meet you." She threw her arms around Nadia's neck in a hug.
Nadia was pulled down slightly. She was 5'7 and Zack's mother couldn't be much more than 5'3. Nadia endured the hug awkwardly. Demonstrating affection wasn't something that came easy for her. "Yes. It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Mrs. Fair." One glance at Zack told her that the frigidity in her voice had reemerged.
Mrs. Fair's eyes landed on Reno. "And who is this?"
Nadia mustered up some warmth, and replied, "This is Reno, my boyfriend."
"Oh." This "oh" was different from the first. Mrs. Fair sounded sad, almost disappointed. "You didn't mention another guest, Zacky."
Zack's face took on a deeper shade of red.
"It's my fault, ma'am," Nadia reasoned.
"Oh no, it's fine." Mrs. Fair's momentary gloom had already dispersed. "You don't have to be so formal, sweetheart. You can call me mom."
Reno was furious, but he masked it, and Zack was now blushing so brightly that it seemed impossible for him to get any brighter.
"Zack?" Nadia cocked her head to the side. "Sweetie, are you feeling all right?" She placed a hand on his forehead. "You feel feverish. . . . Your nose is bleeding. It might be the altitude shift."
"I'm fine," he reassured, gently pushing her hand away and wiping the blood from his upper lip with his forearm, effectively staining his coat's sleeve.
"Can I take your coats?" Mrs. Fair offered jovially.
"I can take care of it, Mom."
"Oh no! I insist!" Taking the three coats in her arms she waddled into the front room saying, "I was going to have Zack sleep on the couch and let you take his old room, Nadia, but now I'm not sure what the sleeping arrangements are going to be. Oh! Harold! The guests are here!"
"Guests?" a distinguished voice questioned from out of sight. "I thought there was only going to be one."
"No, there aretwo. Now, go take care of their bags."
"Really, Misses . . . I mean . . . mom, it's fine. We can take care of it." Mom. The word felt bizarre on Nadia's lips. She hadn't used that word in a long time, a very long time. She wasn't sure if she had ever used it. She had never addressed anyone as "mom," not as far as she knew.
"Nah, I got it." That was the first time Nadia ever laid eyes on Harold Fair. He grabbed hers and Reno's bags, leaving Zack to carry his own. "I'll lead you to your room."
"My . . . room?" She couldn't mask her confusion.
"Yeah. Mary, is she still staying in Zackary's room?"
Zack's mom called from the kitchen, "Yes, honey, that's fine."
"Where am I and Reno going to stay?" Zack asked.
"The livingroom. It's only proper to give the girl her own room."
Feeling as though she was being rather intrusive, Nadia tried to convince Mary that she could sleep on the couch, or better yet, check into a nearby hotel, but Mary wouldn't have it. Harold dropped Nadia's bag on a twin sized bed. She couldn't imagine Zack's 6'3 frame fitting on the considerably small piece of furniture. It was a plain room. One could assume that since the Fair's weren't exactly a privileged family, they had little money to spare for frivolous decoration or any amenity. It bore a likeness to Nadia's own room, when she was younger. She had led a similar childhood, in the pecuniary sense.
She turned away from the bed, to the doorway. There stood Harold. "I never got a chance to introduce myself." He held out a hand obligingly. "Harold Fair."
She smiled astutely. "Nadia Towers. It's nice to meet you."
"Zack didn't do you justice," Harold said kindly.
"Does he talk to you often? When he's in Midgar, I mean."
"He writes Mary a letter once a month, to keep her from losing her head. This whole SOLDIER business has really thrown her for a loop. Her greatest fear is that he'll die because of his choice in occupation."
"I completely understand." Without thinking, Nadia continued speaking, saying not the most reassuring things. "SOLDIER is a den of wolves. SOLDIERs die every day and deaths are caused by them. Some don't die, but that's what their loved ones are led to believe."
Harold took this news relatively sedately. "What happens to those who don't die, whose families are told otherwise?"
"I can't say. Partially because I don't know the full extent, but also because I'm under contract." She tore her eyes from his. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't make you worry so. Zack can take care of himself. That won't happen to him. I'm sure of it."
Harold had opened his mouth to reply, but Mary's voice cut through the air. "Harold! It's dinnertime!" He stepped back through the doorway and set off, down the narrow hall.
Nadia followed suit. She entered the dining room to see a very slight, but broad chested blonde woman seated at the sturdy oak table chewing on one of her fingernails. Mary walked up behind the girl and placed two chubby hands on either of her shoulders. "Nadia, this is Harold's niece, Lauri."
Nadia offered a greeting.
A lazy, "Yeah, hi," was the given response. She didn't perk up or even attempt to be agreeable until Reno and Zack had entered. Either she had a twisted crush on her younger cousin (whom she referred to as the 'baby' because he was apparently currently the youngest in the family at the time) or she was interested in Nadia's beau. "Who is your friend Zacky!?"
"Reno."
"And I'm not really his friend." Reno took a seat next to Lauri (her full name was Laurentia).
"Than why are you here?" she asked, and leaned toward him as she spoke.
"I have time off and I heard that Nadia was coming here."
"So?"
"She's my girlfriend, and I don't particularly trust your baby cousin with her."
"Oh," she released a long sigh.
"What?" He threw a sidelong glance at Nadia who was having a lively conversation with Zack.
"You're too good-looking for her."
"Even if that was the case, relationships shouldn't be about appearance, or that's what I was always taught."
"Yeah, but you have to admit that a relationship is always more delightful when it's with an attractive person."
"Nadia's plenty attractive."
"Facially, sure, but she's rather small chested if you ask me."
Reno laughed. It was true. Nadia wasn't well endowed in the thoracic region. "You're a catty one, aren't you?"
Laurentia smiled coquettishly. "I call them as I see them."
She and Reno watched his girlfriend interact with her cousin for a few moments. Making sure that Mary was out of earshot, Reno told Laurentia under his breath, "I don't like him one bit."
"But he sure likes your girl."
They sat down for dinner. Nadia was warming up to the Fairs and immensely enjoyed the stories of Zack's childhood. Needless to say, he didn't feel the same. She noticed Laurentia and Reno forming a bond, whispering and giggling about inside jokes that they had formed within the past few minutes, acting as though they had known each other for years. It was atypical of his average behavior, but Reno wanted Nadia to be jealous. Nadia refused to experience the feelings willed upon her. She wasn't utterly oblivious as he believed her to be, but she wasn't about to reward him for his infantile conduct. If he wished to inform her of something he would have to do so as an adult should.
"Do you want to go out after dinner?" Zack asked with one of his cocky smiles.
Still ignoring Reno and Laurentia, Nadia agreed to Zack's offer. "Will you take me around on a tour?"
"Sure. You wanna go too, Reno?" When Reno didn't respond Zack repeated the question and awaited a response.
Reno contemplated the possible outcomes of his attendance and decided against it. If Nadia wanted to ruin their relationship that was up to her. He watched his beloved leave the Fair home with another man.
"She's too young for you, too."
Reno was drawn out of his thoughts by Laurentia's voice.
"I mean you're nineteen, twenty, and how old is she? She couldn't be any older than the family baby."
"She's a little younger than him," Reno admitted.
"She's just a girl. You should be with a woman."
--
Zack and Nadia sat side-by-side upon the roof of a barn, coats held tightly about themselves, watching the sun slowly lower past the horizon.
"When I was eight," he began, "I fell off of this roof and broke my arm."
"Did you spend a lot of time up here?"
The air was cold, but it didn't matter.
"I guess, when I wasn't hanging out with friends, and when my parents weren't getting along."
"Not getting along? They seem to be the perfect couple."
"They were young. They didn't know how to take care of a child."
"How old were they?" Her curiosity was getting the better of her.
"I was four, so they were . . . twenty."
"And they let their child run around on his own?"
"They got better."
"I didn't mean to criticize your parents."
"It doesn't really matter. I mean, I turned out okay, didn't I?"
She rustled his hair playfully. "You turned out great, sweetie."
His eyes were glowing softly in the fading light. "So . . ."
"'So,' what?"
"Come on, Harley! It seems like I've been the only one talking about myself. You haven't said anything about yourself or your own past. I've been doing the majority of the talking."
"You want to know about me?"
"And let me guess, you don't want to talk about it."
"No, that's not it," she stated simply. "I suppose I could let you in on a few odds and ends. But where to begin?"
"The beginning, perhaps?"
"That makes sense. Well, I was born in Midgar," she said as though she were going to simply recount a few details of her mundane life.
"I thought you grew up in Banora!"
"I did. My father died at the age of twenty-four, the day after my first birthday from . . . well, that doesn't matter. A month later, my mom was pushing up daisies. Heart failure, a condition known as broken heart syndrome."
"You can die . . ."
"Just by being sad? Yes, and those are the hardest cases to deal with. Dealing with emotions is much more difficult than doing so with bodily dysfunctions, et cetera."
"I'm so sorry."
"No need. I don't remember them at all. I thought that my uncle was my father up until I was twelve. He lived in Banora. He was living with my mother when her heart weakened, trying to take care of her. After she died, he took me to his home, and that's where I lived until age fifteen. His wife had died while giving birth, and the child hadn't been strong enough to survive from the start. So, he lived alone until he took me in." Nadia smiled into the final rays of the setting sun. "He's long gone now, though."
"Where to?" Zack asked leaning toward his companion.
"The life stream, and don't apologize again. I hold grudges. I held a grudge against him that I would still have firmly had his life not been brutally taken from him."
Zack remained in solemn silence.
"I won't tell you who caused his death. It wouldn't please you."
He was beginning to feel as though he had made a mistake in asking about her life, but even so, she had left his most prominent question unanswered.
When they returned to the Fair household, it was an hour or so past midnight. Zack took Nadia's jacket, offering to hang it up in the closet. His footsteps echoed off of the walls. The closet was off the pantry, secluded from the rest of the house. He thought he heard some scuffling of feet, but ignored it. He opened the door, then yelped and stumbled back. "Reno! Lauri!"
Reno grabbed him, and covered his mouth. "Shush!"
Zack dug one of his canines into Reno's hand and he was released.
"Ow! He bit me! I'm bleeding!"
"You ass! You're -"
"You can't tell Nadia!"
"That you were making out with my whore cousin in the coat closet!? She's my friend. I have to tell her!"
"Do you know what that would do to her? She can't handle that now."
"She's notas weak as you think she is."
"She's not as strong as you think she is!"
"Zack, Zack, Zack," Laurentia sighed, "what happened to loyalty."
"I could say the same to Reno."
"Give me a break. It was one kiss," Reno replied incredulously.
"I don't care."
"Fine. I'm a turk. I'm higher up than you are. If you make my life miserable, I can do the same to you, but ten fold. You'll be getting the kitty missions, that is, if you're even still in SOLDIER."
Zack shook his head in defeat and turned away. He spent an hour lying on the floor with a pillow under his head, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't sleep. He couldn't keep this from Nadia. Ere long, he sat up and glanced at Reno, who was sleeping on the couch. Laurentia had taken the guest room. Zack stood, and pulled himself to his old bedroom. He stumbled up to the bed and knelt down beside it. He couldn't see her face, but he could make out her frame in the darkness. "Harley," he hissed.
She opened her eyes and to see a glow slightly brighter than usual emanating from Zack's eyes. Her eyes gave a faint glow in return. "Zack? Is something wrong?"
His original plan had been to tell her of Reno's faux pas, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not because of Reno's threat, but because he knew it would hurt her deeply, he couldn't tell her, not now. "No, nothing. I just couldn't sleep."
Propping herself up on her elbow, she replied, "And what do you suppose I could do about it?"
He smiled coyly. "Tell me a story," he said facetiously.
"What are you? Two years old?"
He turned around and rested his back against the box spring. "Your eyes glow too, with mako, I assume. I don't think you lied to me. You weren't in SOLDIER, your eyes would be blue if you were, but for some reason, you have mako in your blood, in you. If you didn't, our blood wouldn't have been compatible, and your eyes wouldn't glow the way they do."
"You are observant," she sighed at the back of his head. "Very well, I will tell you a story, although I told you more than you needed to know on that roof." Her eyes dimmed. "Once upon a time," she began, "there was a first class SOLDIER named Ronyn Towers. He was very successful, but also lonely."
"How do you know he was lonely?"
"Shh! I'm telling a story. One day, he met a beautiful woman."
"How beautiful?"
"Very beautiful, now shut up. She had enchanting purple eyes and long black hair. She was anti-SOLDIER and Shinra in general, but she still found fondness for him in her heart. Long story short, they fell in love, it was inevitable. You might not know this, actually you probably don't, but . . . SOLDIERs . . . when they're created . . . they aren't . . . meant to have children. It causes medical complications and their children will . . . supposedly, inherit powers of some sort. Powers that can create mass destruction. They aren't supposed to have children."
Zack spun around to face her.
"Most don't. When they enter relationships, they are informed of the consequences."
"Consequences?"
"Of course, when love is present, people don't care about death."
"Death?"
"So, they had a child. It was an accident, mind you, and named her Nadia, one who is full of hope. They were full of hope. They hoped that for once, Shinra would not enforce their rules. A year passed, and that's the way that it seemed, but then, Ronyn was called out on a mission, a seemingly routine mission. Hours later, news arrived that he had been 'killed in action,' but the widow, Athena knew better. The SOLDIER who had killed him, feeling bad about what he had done, only confirmed her knowledge. Due to the birth of Nadia, Ronyn had been killed, and Athena was to be next if she did not give up her daughter to be condemned to the same fate as her father. However, when Athena fell ill, and it was seen that she wouldn't live much longer as it was, they allowed her to fulfill the remainder of her life, deciding that they would end the child's life at that time. They weren't expecting a relative to interfere. When they came for Nadia, she was gone. To where, they did not know until sixteen years later, and by that time, it was too late. She had too many friends who would fight to the death to save her. The only thing that they could do was get rid of the only living remnant of her family and allow her to live as she pleased. And she did so. The only thing that would allude to her past would be the glow of mako in her eyes, and only when she was experiencing extreme emotion or excitement. She worked hard and became a doctor so that she could protect her friends and stop what had happened to her family from happening again to someone else." She released a shuddering sigh and whimpered two final words: "The end."